Elsien Gringhuis Amsterdam Fashion Week fw2010

The fashion show of Elsien Gringhuis was all about modern times and the feeling to be locked up. The show opened with a girl wearing a helmet embellished with mirror splinters. Unfortunately she had to take of her shoes while they were too high to walk in, yet more models had problems with the shoes.

Elsien Gringhuis’s designs were colored black, white, gray and mint. The clothes had clear geometrical shapes and were made out of silk, wool and leather. Some items seemed as if they were made out of many independent pieces.

The models wore gloves and their hair was tightly braided. The last outfit of the show was a white, silk, circular shaped dress, which caught everyone’s attention.

Elsien’s fall/winter collection was the second collection she presented during Amsterdam Fashion Week. She graduated in 2008, she won the most creative collection of the year award from Italian Mittelmode and was nominated for the Frans Molenaar award.

Amsterdam Fashion Week: openingssoiree 2010

Yesterday the Amsterdam International Fashion Week started off with the openingssoiree. In between the fashion shows of Jan Taminiau and Mattijs we spotted some interesting people. Although the bites were lacking everyone was having a blast.

Jan Taminiau Amsterdam Fashion Week fw2010

Jan Taminiau’s day couldn’t be better.  In the afternoon he heard Vogue Italia was interested in his collection and in the evening he gave a spectacular fashion show.

The fall/winter collection he presented was shiny and sparkly and the clothes had some amazing shapes and silhouettes.

He used gold, light blue, pink and nudes for his designs. His creations had ruffles, sequins and fans. They had a lot of volume and the shoulders were accentuated in many different ways.

The models wore matching headbands/scarfs and walked in super high shoes (without heels). They showed some crazy poses at the end of the runway.

The last two dresses of Jan Taminiau’s show both had big veils. His show ended with his muse wearing an ivory colored wedding dress.

The reactions from the audience were very positive and now we’ve seen the whole show we really understand why Vogue is so interested. Congrats on a great show Jan!

Christian Dior Haute Couture Catwalk Fashion Show ss2010

Elegant amazones walked the small runway at the first floor of the Christian Dior store in Paris. Kylie Minogue was sitting front row, as was Dita von Teese and Tavi, the 13 year old fashionblogger from Chicago.

John Galliano took a picture of couturier Charles James as his inspiration for the ss2010 haute couture-collection. And it was a sensory overload as usual. This time Galliano’s researchtrip went to the Metropolitan Museum where the gowns of Charles James caught his eye. There he saw a  picture of the designer – who influenced Monsieur Dior to come up with the New Look – with an image of women riding sidesaddle in the backround. The result is a collection full of riding skirts with nip-waisted jackets, frothy cocktail dresses and satin ballgowns. Colors went from black, white an red to purple, orange, green and pastelshades.

The refined elegance, the strong women and the longer skirts and accent at the waist will influence a whole new silhouette for the coming seasons.

Come back of Thimister

Josephus Thimister (47), from Dutch origins and an promising talent of the Belgian school in the late nineties –  made a come back last sunday with a self financed haute couture collection.

Bloodshed and militairia were the two themes he wove into his haute couturecollection for fall 2010. Thimister took his inspiration from a photograph of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, Emperor Nicholas II’s murdered 13-year-old son, who was routinely dressed in uniform as a boy. The result was a collection men’s and womenswear mixing romanticism (in red, white, army-green) with a raw-edged minimalism: tank tops and jodhpurs splattered with fake-blood, officer’s jackets, narrow dresses, army cats and jumpsuits. Thimister told style.com he’d used resonances from World War I because “what happened then was the start of modernism: war, sorrow, destruction we’re still dealing with now. And the lack of creativity and spirituality”.

Do you want to know more about Thimister? Read this interview at style.com: www.style.com/stylefile/2009/12/josephus-thimister-has-nothing-to-lose/

Preview Jan Taminiau Couture

Yesterday Jan Taminiau presented his couturecollection in Paris. Tomorrow he will officially open the Amsterdam International Fashionweek with his collection Duality. These are the thoughts of the designer regarding his collection:

“‘Duality’ is based on thoughts of a duel and of duality. A duel between different cultural traditions, heritage and innovation. It is a noble duel, almost dancelike as in fencing. With a duality of seduction, unveiling and hiding.

The dresses are comprised of a duel between two different forms and a duel between different worlds. The antique Chinese fabric is used for the most dominant, sculptural form and is placed in contrast with a more classical silhouette. The dialogue also takes places between the almost organic substance of the heavily embroidered fabric with paillettes and the sensitivity of the antique hand woven fabric.

The sculptural forms can be interpreted as a shield -or protection- for battle, but at the same time they offer intimacy, play their role in a game of concealing and seduction.”

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Paul Smith

Looking at the diverse types of models that walked in Paul Smith’s fashion show, you’d think he must have wanted to reach a large audience. The models were as different as they could be:  young, old, pale, bold, long, bearded, red-haired etc.

The clothes were just as diverse. Shirts with floral prints, checked jackets, colorful trousers and bowler hats were easily combined in one look. And while some clothes were appropriate for punky students other seemed perfect for late night dinners.

In this collection Paul Smith mixed natural colors like brown, gray and beige with bright ones like pink, blue, red and purple.

A few jackets had decorated safety pins attached and we saw sunglasses in some of the breast pockets.

Items that really caught our eye were a black poncho, a long cobalt blue overcoat and a turquoise colored suit. The show ended with some slick black dinner jackets.

Then Paul Smith and all his models came on to the runway in a chaotic manner that matched the fashion show’s overall vibe.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Raf Simons

After two seasons of modern suits with that typical Belgian edge, Raf Simons pushed again the boundaries of menswear. He already played the game of closures at his collection for Jil Sander (with mixed results), but it worked out much better for his own fall collection. Still suits form the center part (but as the designer said earlier: he and his clients are grown up men now), Raf still favors dark colors, but he replaced the buttons with metallic magnetic closures and velcro strips which made a pretty tight silhouette and clean image.  Simons also re-made the traditional trench by separating the coat into halfs and using the lower half as a skirt or protective shield. Besides that he played an interesting graphic game with red, white and blue.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Hermès

For next winter Veronique Nichanian designed a qualitative and diversified menswear collection for Hermès. Just like many desigers Veronique opted for gray as the main color. Though she added some red, blue, green and black.

The Hermès models were well-dressed and much attention was paid to every little detail. From the floral scarfs to the handkerchiefs in the breast-pockets and the chains attached to the trousers.

The collection had velours jackets, turtle necks, woolly cardigans, leather pants and jackets with zippers that were only zipped in the middle.

Over a few coats the models wore a sophisticated leather belt and their large scarfs were tied in a particular way. Two snake leather jackets were real showpieces.

Altogether it was a solid collection with very wearable designs.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: John Galliano

The invites for John Galliano’s fashion show were folded into Chinese take out boxes. Yet Chinese influences were not the only influences Galliano chose for his fw2010 show.

According to the show notes with this collection Galliano evoked the multi-faceted personality and lifestyle of Sherlock Holmes. This lead to four different types of men appearing on the runway.

At first Galliano’s moustached detective men wore several layers of large trenchcoats. The coats had leather and fur accents and a checked pattern.

Than the classic, dandy boys came by, wearing tight suits, ties, corsets(!) and bowler hats.

Next we saw several warrior types in multi-colored satin outfits showing a great deal of their bronzed bodies. Again we saw bruises and blood on these models.

At the end Chinese-looking men strolled the runway in (floral printed) silk, transparent and embellished garments.

The finale was the perfect ending of a spectaculair show. Flames were thrown high in the air as John Galliano himself appeared.

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